The effect of herbal blend product on nlrp3 inflammasome response in traumatic osteoarthritis induced rats

Post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) acutely or chronically occurs related to traumatic joint injuries. The NLRP3 inflammasome accelerates inflammatory response and macrophage infiltration by activated IL-1β and IL-18 pro-inflammatory cytokines through the caspase-1 pathway. Various herbs and herbal blends are used to reduce the inflammatory response for treatment of PTOA. It was aimed to investigate the effects of herbal blend product against PTOA related inflammasome activity in the non-invasively induced knee joint damaged rats by this study. For this purpose, 40 healthy and adult Wistar Albino rats (6-8 weeks old) were randomly divided into 5 groups. The groups are consisted as control (n = 8), post-traumatic osteoarthritis [P] (n = 8), herbal product [H] (n = 8), 3 weeks of osteoarthritis + 3 weeks of herbal product [3P + H] (n = 8 ) and P + 3 weeks herbal product [6P + H] (n = 8). NLRP3 and IL-1β, IL-18 cytokine levels were measured by ELISA method from the sera at the end of the three-weeks experimental period. The NLRP3 and IL-1β levels were not shown any difference among groups. However, IL-18 levels were increased (p <0.05) in H and 6P + H groups. In conclusion, more detailed molecular studies are needed to elucidate the inflammatory pathways in the case of PTOA. As a result, it was concluded that have to be considered of the contraindicated effects of herbal products which are used for alternative treatment. Keywords: Inflammasome, Osteoarthritis, Joint, Cytokine